Most if not all of my friends who own Tarot decks name them and believe they have personalities. I admit I used to personify mine too, but the biased in interpretation (due to impression about the “personality”) caused to serious readings bug me. So now I bought a new deck and I am just using it as an impersonal divination and channeling tool.
If you hear my friends talking about their Tarots you’d think they are talking about familiars or pets. They also ask the Tarots about their gender and zodiac signs, and buy stones associated with the signs to charge them. They believe their Tarots form relationships with each other. They make small talks with the Tarots
In my view, they should just call them familiars, and the tarots are just vessels, and would be more suited for afternoon chitchats than divination (since most of these Tarots sound more interested in worldly hobbies and personal affairs than accessing the ethereal realm). But sometimes I feel I’m being a bitch nitpicking those things, so I try to keep my opinions to myself. I only talk about that to my best friends who I really care about, because most of these Tarot users don’t research magic much and have no idea what familiars are. I just want my friends to be aware of what they’re doing.
Tell me what you think and whether your Tarots have their own identities?
Like there is someone with me whe I use that one deck. Mostly a male energy. The others I feel nothing so I just use that one deck. I’ve had it since the late 80’s.
It’s normal to have a bond with your deck, but that’s far away from a healthy bond that’s required for a reader and his deck. Naming them, asking their gender and sign and buy them stuff? What’s next, taking them out on a date?
“Me and Bob we’re going to the cinema tonight. He’s so sweet and chatty, he’s Virgo with Taurus rising and I just bought him a nice pendant, he just looooves it!”
“Oh, new boyfriend?”
“No, new deck”
All of my decks do have distinct personalities except for my Rider Waite, which is neutral and my main deck for study. I don’t name them or interact with them in the same way I would a familiar or servitor. They tend to be more seasonal to me. For example, Deviant Moon always gives a harsh, shady reading which I enjoy around this time of year when I’m beginning to purge ways that have lost their usefulness. My black a gold deck is used in my circle and for rituals, my Salvador Dali deck for creativity, and I like the Wild Unknown in spring and summer or when I’m feeling playful. I go to The Literary Witches Oracle when I’m looking for inspiration, especially in regards to writing.
Ok brace yourselves: my friend’s friends do exactly that. Also they gossip about this person’s deck’s relationship with that person’s deck. Oh, I can go on forever…
I once met this guy at a cafe, he was with his girlfriend, and he literally said “I don’t like my Tarot, I’m IN LOVE with my Tarot.” I noped the fuck outta there.
I used to have a Druid Craft deck and a Golden, both gifted to me back when I didn’t want anything to do with Tarot. The Golden Tarot immediately scolded me and preached at me for following pagan (Artemis) and the Devil (Lucifer) and I freaked out and was like wtf I don’t need this and sealed that one for a good year (crude of me but I was 19). That one was usually really harsh and naggy (repeat same card over and over and over…). The Druid one was usually… idk, witty? But roundabout. So I prefered the Golden although it made my blood boil sometimes… Yeah I named them and imagined the spirits but that’s it.
One more thing: my friend ask the Tarots every time she wants to work with them, if they’re willing to work with her. I keep telling her she’s the master and they’re either tools or servitors, she shouldn’t have to do that. In fact sometimes she says they’re “busy” or “not willing to tell the truth” and she just stops. She respects them way too much.
Please tell me I have the right to be upset about this. I do, right?
I feel like a deck over time can develop a “personality” of sorts, but it builds over time as you put your own energy to it. It reflects you. To me all things both alive and inanimate can have a certain energy or “spirit” but cards having relationships? Dafuq?? Are they gonna get married and have a baby deck??
Ah yes, definetely the case with my deck. My tarot deck is so goddamn preachy smh. Sometimes it wont even answer the question asked and instead it will point out the bs you tell yourself. A friend of mine stopped asking me to spread the cards for her because she felt attacked
